What do You think about A Virtuous Woman (1997)?
This is a meaningful story about the basics of life: love, choices, struggle, understanding. It is an austere story of common people making the same common mistakes that are found throughout humanity. A young girl makes immature choices in life and marriage and quickly regrets these. She finds redemption through an unlikely partner. This is a very giving story. It has a generous feel that seems set forth purposefully by the author from the outset. We see and understand the couple of Jack and Ruby so clearly and their lives really make sense to us. Then Ruby's voice fades as she falls to illness and she only then lives within Jack. Such a beautiful, connecting novel.
—SarahC
3.5 starts. I enjoyed this sweet love story that shows how our choices affect our lives and the lives of those around us. I wondered about Roland- if he would have been a better person if he'd not been treated as the bastard son. Was Burr as good to him as he was to June? Did his treatment because he wasn't Burr's son make him who he became? I felt his character was a bit of a stereotype. I struggled at times with the writing of the story. Because it carried the accent of the narrator, it was confusing to follow at times because Jack didn't always use standard English. I felt the ending was bit abrupt. I wanted more and wasn't ready for the story to end. I loved how Ruby and Jack loved and cared for each other and this story makes me want to be a better wife.
—Catherine
Gosh, for such a small book, it took me forever to read it. While I enjoyed Gibbon's writing style, she really does a good job making her characters lifelike, it just never took off for me. It was very slow paced. Nothing exciting happened that made me anxious to pick it back up after I put it down. Lesser characters Tiny Fran and Roland were painted as stereo-typical small-minded and selfish archetypes, creating the brunt of the conflicts in the story. The main characters, Jack and Ruby initially came off as a cute mismatched pair, (She the young beauty. He the skinny older man) and I enjoyed reading about them, but if the author was inferring that Ruby was a virtuous woman, I'm not sure I'd agree. Virtuous means righteous, good, pure, upstanding. Half way through the story, Ruby and Jack, along with their neighbor, Burr, seem to take too much enjoyment out of tormenting the antagonists. Jack and Ruby's ridicule and often harsh reactions to the antagonists' infractions made them nearly as unlikeable as the people they condemned. It's not often I come out of a book not sure of the point of the story.
—Suzanne
